“It’s okay. You’re worried about your family.” She got up, limped over to my bed, and sat down on the edge. “Please keep explaining, I won’t interrupt.”
“Yeah, okay. So, we’re going to get up early and head toward the farm in the Volt. I don’t know if you’ve ever been around one, but they’re really quiet.”
“Do you think there are people still there?” she asked. I refrained from telling her she’d just asked another question.
“I don’t know,” I answered, “but we don’t want to drive right up and risk being killed. So, here’s how it’s going to go. We’re going to get a few hours of sleep and then head out while it’s still dark. You’re going to drop me off about a mile from the old homestead and then you’re going to hide while I do my super ninja routine and make my way there without anyone spotting me. I’ll check the old homestead first and then work my way over to the main house.” I was silent for a minute. Kelly continued sitting beside me.
“You’re going to do all of this in the dark?” she asked.
“Yeah, I know every square inch of that farm, so the dark will work in my favor.”
“Okay, I have to ask, if anyone is there who is not a part of our group, are you going to kill them?”
“I’m pretty sure I will. Do you have a problem with that?”
“Not at all,” she said quietly.
“Good. Now, get back in your bed and get some sleep. We’ve got a long day tomorrow.”
The predawn morning fog was as thick as pea soup, which was wonderful. Nobody was going to see me until it was too late – for them. We parked the Volt on the side of the road like it had been abandoned.
“Lock yourself in the car and put the seat down. If anyone or anything walks down the road, pull the blanket over you. You’ll be alright,” I said to her, “but, if you have any problems, you have your gun, don’t hesitate to use it. Then, take off. Make your way back to the tire shop and wait there.”
“I understand,” she replied. “How long are you going to be?”
“Eh, that’s a good question. If I’m not back by sundown, head back to the shop and lock yourself inside, okay?” Kelly nodded, but not without a concerned expression.
“What if, well, what if you don’t make it?” she asked. I shrugged.
“I don’t really know how to respond to that. Don’t worry, I’ll be okay.” I gave her shoulder a gentle reassuring squeeze and jogged off.
I jogged slowly in the dark, careful to avoid any wandering zombies or tripping over a fallen tree limb. Fortunately, I did not have any issues and easily found the driveway.
The bridge was surprisingly still blocked by the backhoe and barbed wire. I had no problem getting through and felt confident walking up the hill. Even so, I still held my M4 at the ready, just in case.
I got close and worked my way around the house. It was deathly quiet, no dog barked out a warning, not even the rooster was crowing. The exterior was riddled with bullet holes and it looked like they had a high caliber weapon they used on the hard points. It was more or less in ruins; I’d never be able to repair it.
Using the small light attached to the M4, I made my way in and searched for any survivors, but it was devoid of life. One of Konya’s dogs, Number One, was lying dead in the hallway, beside his owner. They’d both been shot multiple times. I didn’t see Two or Four. I hoped they were alive somewhere. The place had been ransacked of anything of value.
The barn was in similar condition with two of the horses, Isis and her colt, dead in the stalls. It looked like the bastards shot them for nothing more than pure meanness. Number Four was lying in the corner with her puppies curled up beside her. All of them had been shot.
I had no trouble finding Terry. He was lying crumpled against the wall where Kelly said she left him.
“I’ll see you on the other side, bro,” I whispered to my friend as I covered him with a saddle blanket.
I struggled to keep the tears in check, exited the barn, and started making my way to the main house. I suspected I knew what was awaiting me, but I had to see it for myself.
The old homestead and the new house were only about four hundred yards apart. If you stood in the front yard of one house, you couldn’t see the other due to the contours in the terrain in between, but I knew every nuance of this land and had no problem finding my way in the thick fog.
I went to the other barn first. It had been stripped clean. All of my tools, hell, even all of the riding tack were gone.
The main house, the house my wife and children lived in, was in shambles. It had been shredded apart by gunfire and that same high caliber weapon. It too looked like it would collapse at any minute.
I went through the house carefully, looking for corpses, but all I found were thick stains of dried blood. I couldn’t find any bodies though, which caused me to convince myself that perhaps they had somehow survived.
Everything else of value, food, weapons, even clothes had been taken. Even my notepads were gone. The only thing I found was Andie’s journal, which she often kept under the couch. I exited the house, walked around to the back and my delusion of anyone surviving was instantly erased.
There, in the backyard, not too far from where the picnic tables once were, was a stack of corpses. They had been burned, making any type of recognition impossible, but I knew who they were.
I sat on the ground and looked at them for I don’t know how long. The tears flowed freely and my sobs were unrestrained. Make no mistake though, deep down inside, a smoldering rage was burning.
I guess I sat there for an hour or so, lost in the memories of these people whom I had grown to love. I knew I needed to move along, but I couldn’t seem to do anything other than sit there and reminisce.
At some point, I realized that I was being selfish. Kelly was alone, hiding out in a car parked on a desolate road, waiting on me. I needed to get back to her and started to stand, but before I could act, I heard the sound of a vehicle approaching.
I ducked down behind one of the concrete barricades quickly and peeked around. It was Rick’s big red dually pickup truck coming up the driveway, and there were four people in it. They stopped about fifty feet away from me and backed up to the root cellar we had dug out a few months ago. I could smell the pungent aroma of marijuana wafting out of the open windows, and watched as they passed around a rather large water bong that looked a lot like a deformed donkey’s dick with one end of it shaped like two large testicles.
After parking, they sat there for several minutes and passed around their bong, talking and laughing without a care in the world, before it finally occurred to them they had come here for a specific purpose. They eventually exited the truck and began loading up all of our food products from the root cellar into the back of the truck. I waited until they were finished. After all, there was no need for me to do all of the work.
When it looked like they had reached their limit of physical exertion, I stood. The M4 felt good in my hands, like it innately knew its purpose.
The weed slowed down their thought processes; they gave no thought to post a guard or at least scan the area for any possible threats. Michael had stopped momentarily to scratch himself, and only then did he look around. He stood there with his mouth froze in an O-shape when he spotted me. His three companions slowly realized Michael was startled and followed his eyes to me. Their reaction was much the same, their mouths dropped open and they stared stupidly.
“If you want to live, do not move one single muscle,” I ordered in a snarl. The four of them were dumbfounded, no doubt due to a combination of the marijuana and the disbelief that I was here, facing them.
Michael worked his mouth, perhaps in an attempt to say something but nothing came out. He blinked his bloodshot eyes several times and then I guess he somehow convinced himself he could get the drop on me. His hand went for the pistol tucked in his waistband. I shot him in the upper thigh about the same time his fingertips caressed the handle. He screamed in agony and fell in a heap. I cursed myself silently. I was aiming for his groin, but I was off by a few inches. In any event, the gunshot had the desired effect, he dropped to the ground and his conscience, overloaded with pain signals, forgot all about his gun. I looked at the other three.
“Throw your weapons on the ground if you want to live.”
“You can’t get us all,” Kelvin declared.
“Did you learn that line in some idiotic movie?” I asked. “This is the real deal dumbass. Do what I say, or else you’ll end up like Michael.”
Michael continued whimpering, which caused Kelvin to lose his resolve. He slowly took his handgun out from his waist and tossed it on the ground about a foot in front of him. I guess he thought he was going to be able to dive for it and shoot me when my attention was diverted. The other two followed suit. Stupid, very stupid.
I walked up and kicked Kelvin in the chest with my size thirteen. When he exhaled, he sounded like a dying cow as he fell back on his ass. I reached down and quickly picked up his gun. It was one of Fred’s Rugers, which didn’t help my disposition. I tossed it aside, well away from them, and gestured at Felix.
“That gun in Michael’s waistband, it looks a lot like my Kimber forty-five, am I right?” I asked. Felix shrugged. I walked over while keeping eye contact on all of them and snatched it out of his waistband. He gave me the stink eye while I inspected it.
“Yep, I believe it is.” With that, I smacked Michael in the face with it. His nose made a pleasant crunching sound. It began bleeding profusely, which made me all giddy inside.
“Now back away from those guns and sit by your buddy,” I demanded. This time they did as ordered. I looked them over with undisguised hatred. Felix appeared to be unarmed, which seemed odd.
“Where the hell is your weapon?” I asked. He gestured over at the truck. A rifle was casually leaning up against it. “Dumb shit,” I muttered.
“Why are you doing this?” Sue wailed.
Instead of answering verbally, I slowly raised an arm and pointed at the pile of burned corpses. My finger then moved to point at Felix.
“I loved you like a brother, Felix.”
Felix held out his hands. “I didn’t have a choice in the matter, Zach. They were going to kill me if I didn’t go along.”
“What, these pieces of shit?” I asked and looked over the other three. They were fixated on watching me, fully aware now that I was on the precipice, waiting for any kind of sign to kill them, or worse. I returned my cold stare at Felix.
“All you had to do was give the word and I would have killed them. You should know better than try to tell me some bullshit story.” I waved the M4 at them. “What about it, Felix? Do you want me to kill them now?”
Felix dropped his hands and hung his head, refusing to answer.
“Which one of you killed Julie?” I asked. Nobody responded.
“Wrong answer,” I said. I took a couple of quick steps and struck Felix, the butt of the rifle catching him squarely in the nose. He cried out in pain as he fell back, his thick glasses flying off his head. He grabbed his nose with both hands and the blood spurted out from between his fingers. I wasn’t sympathetic though, instead, I chortled sadistically.
“Now you look just like your buddy,” I said and watched to see what their reaction would be. They were frozen like a deer caught in a car’s headlights.
“You four have a choice,” I said, “answer my questions, or else I’ll get pissed off and start doing nasty things to you.”
“We didn’t kill them,” Felix wailed, “the Colonel and his soldiers did.”
“Why?”
“He wanted your children for some reason and Julie wouldn’t give them up. He never told us why.”
“Alright, maybe I believe you, maybe I don’t. Tell me how it went down,” I demanded. Felix sobbed and blew blood out of his nose.
“After grabbing you, they put you in a truck and took off. The rest of them went to your house. They caught Andie and Terry somewhere, shot them, and then went to the house. Fred was mowed down with a machine gun. Then they approached the house and demanded everyone come out and surrender.”
“Well now, I believe I’m catching you in a lie,” I said. “A little birdie told me Andie and Terry had been at the school and encountered you guys on the ride back to the farm. Y’all waved them down and then y’all shot them.”
“We were just going to keep them out of the way while the Marines did their job,” Felix said, “but Terry pulled a gun and Michael shot him.”
“It was self-defense, man,” Michael lamented.
“So, you shot both of them.”
“It was self-defense,” he repeated. I guess he thought if he said it enough times I’d believe it. I didn’t do anything to him. I wanted to, but decided to wait. I had something better in mind.
“So, what happened next?”
“We went to the house. The Marines drove up with a couple of those little mini tanks…”
“A Bradley,” Sue added.
“Yeah,” Felix continued, “a Bradley fighting vehicle, that’s what they called them. So, they drive up to the front of the house and the Colonel gets on a loudspeaker. He demanded everyone come out and surrender. Everyone in the house opened fire, but it didn’t do any good, those things were bullet proof. They took out the main door with that gun that’s mounted on it.”
I searched my memory. The Bradley had many configurations, one of which was a twenty-five millimeter chain gun mounted on it. It could have easily blasted through the steel entry door with the right ammunition. It explained the large impacts I observed earlier.
“They didn’t stand a chance,” Felix continued. “I guess you know the rest.”
“Did they take my kids?” I asked. Felix nodded. “What about Julie?”
Sue spoke up. “They promised not to hurt her.”
“Yeah, Zach, we made them promise not to hurt anyone,” Felix said. “That was part of the bargain, but they didn’t keep their promise.” I looked at him in disgust.
“So, what happened then?”
“During all of the gunfire, she got shot,” Felix said reluctantly.
“Were my kids hurt?” Felix quickly shook his head.
“They must have been protected somehow. After the shooting was over, those Marines went in the house and came out with them. They found both of them unharmed.” Felix saw me staring hard at him. “They took them when they left.”
I gestured at the stack of burned corpses. “Who all is over there?”
“Fred, the old woman, Jessica, Andie…” Felix couldn’t finish the sentence.
“And Julie,” I said while continuing to stare at him balefully. Felix reluctantly nodded but then quickly spoke again.